Attoyac

The Attoyac Cemetery, located in the piney woods beside the Attoyac Baptist Church, was originally part of the grant made to Lorenzo de Zavala by the Mexican Government in 1829.  In 1835, de Zavala approved Matthew Cartwright’s request for a patent on 1,107 acres of land situated within the land granted to him.  Transactions of land sales in San Augustine Court House reveal Cartwright sold all of this land in June of 1848 for $1,100 to Rueben D. Wood.  Rueben was married to Susan Horton, sister of Alexander Horton.  Two months later, Wood sold the land to James Bass of Rutherford, Tennessee for $1,111.  In September of 1880, James H. Sharp, Tax Collector in San Augustine County, listed the property owner as unknown and taxes unpaid.  He sold the parcel to Henry H. Johnson for $10.50 – $6.00 taxes due for 1879 plus $4.50 for expenses of the sale.  Henry H. Johnson is listed on the 1880 U.S. San Augustine County Census as a 33 year old merchant with wife Florence, and three servants.  Unaware of transactions in San Augustine, the heirs of James Bass in Tennessee deeded the same land to their nephew, R.B. Ransom of Hill County, Texas.  The transaction took place in January of 1880, but it was not filed in San Augustine until 1882.  Apparently Bass had died, leaving his real estate holdings to his relatives.  The property now has two titleholders – Johnson and Ransom. 

In 1882, the problem of ownership continued when Edward Blount acquired the land from Ransom in a quick claim deed in return for services rendered.  The following year Henry Johnson filed a quick claim deed which released the land that had been sold to him at tax sale to R.B. Ransom in return for payment of $42.10.  Blount’s claim to the land was validated by Ransom who signed the deed, giving Blount “27/40 of 1107 acres”.  On 8^th July 1904, Blount sold three acres of this land beginning at the northwest corner of the graveyard to the Attoyac Church for $1.00.  The church and cemetery grounds were expanded 5 July 1922 when Columbus C. Goodwin, son of Christopher R. Goodwin, sold five adjoining acres of land to the church for $1.00.  The cemetery was expanded again in the 1950’s on the east side and the south side in the mid 1970’s.  Hurricane Rita in 2005 destroyed some of the large cedar trees and other foliage that created the serene background for the graves.  In 2001, Levi Evett donated the graveside pavilion to provide a shelter for funeral services in memory of his wife, Edna Oleta Eberlan Evett, who died in 1996.

In the early years, the faithful and dedicated citizens of the Attoyac Community had cemetery workings.  Family members and friends gathered regularly to clean and rebuild each grave.  For many years Nora Mills Butler organized family members on Arbor Day for the graveyard cleaning.  Handmade brooms were made and used by the children to sweep the grounds, as the adults hoed the big weeds before lunch was served on a quilt on the ground.  Headstones were not needed as everyone there remembered who was buried where, when and why they died.  Sadly, today, many of these families have deceased or moved away and the location and identity of graves are no longer known. 

The first person buried in the Attoyac Cemetery was Charlie Williamson in October 1882, as is inscribed on his tombstone.  On the San Augustine 1880 US Census he is enumerated living with the Edward Davis family as a 25 year old single male born in Georgia.  At the time of his death he was living with the Isaac L. Nations family, founding members of the Attoyac Church, who placed his body near the church.  By the turn of the century, Charlie was joined by twenty five members of the Travis, Cottingham, Walton, Goodwin, and Wise families.  The Attoyac Cemetery today is the final resting place for over one thousand souls and is honored to have over 100 Veterans many who participated in – Civil, WW I, WW II, Korean, and Vietnam War. 

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